Romney calls for repeal of health bill

From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico MontanaroIn a pointed statement, Republican Mitt Romney -- who as Massachusetts governor signed a very similar health-care legislation into law -- is calling for repeal of the legislation that the House passed last night.

How Romney balances supporting what he did in Massachusetts and opposing Obama's plan will be one of the more interesting stories between now and 2012, if Romney runs for president.

Romney's statement:

[Obama] calls his accomplishment "historic" — in this he is correct, although not for the reason he intends. Rather, it is an historic usurpation of the legislative process — he unleashed the nuclear option, enlisted not a single Republican vote in either chamber, bribed reluctant members of his own party, paid-off his union backers, scapegoated insurers, and justified his act with patently fraudulent accounting. What Barack Obama has ushered into the American political landscape is not good for our country; in the words of an ancient maxim, "what starts twisted, ends twisted."

His health-care bill is unhealthy for America. It raises taxes, slashes the more private side of Medicare, installs price controls, and puts a new federal bureaucracy in charge of health care. It will create a new entitlement even as the ones we already have are bankrupt. For these reasons and more, the act should be repealed. That campaign begins today."